Micro-Blogging in the Enterprise Focus Groups Evaluation

Microblogging in the Enterprise
Focus Groups Evaluation

SYSTEMATIC THOUGHT LEADERSHIP FOR INNOVATIVE BUSINESS

Oliver Günther, SAP Research and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Dirk Riehle, SAP Research, SAP Labs LLC

Hanna Krasnova, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Valentin Schöndienst, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

March 2009

Key Insights from the Focus Groups

Microblogging carries considerable potential for the enterprise
ROI question open:
Can microblogging replace existing communication channels and be more
efficient (replacement aspect)?
Will microblogging lead to new ways of communicating and thus render
enterprises more effective (enhancement aspect)?
Are IT managers willing to pay for these perceived improvements?
Answers depend on (i) industries and (ii) corporate functions
Challenge: How to ride the current wave to enter mainstream
industries?
Next Steps: Survey and experiments

Overview

Research Methodology and Focus Group Setup
Focus Group Results
Drivers and Impediments
Design Recommendations
Lessons for Managers
Model Formulation and Constructs Overview
Next Steps: Survey and Experiments

Focus Group Setup

Four focus groups conducted in December 2008
Moderated by Oliver Günther and Dirk Riehle
Groups were male-dominated, well-educated, average age 30-40

IT Savviness

SAP / TWITTER DON’T KNOW TWITTER KNOW BUT DON’T USE USE TWITTER
TWITTER
EXPERIENCE
FG Dec 16 (8m/1f):
FG Dec 5 (3m/1f): FG Dec 10 (3m/1f):
Nine participants
Four participants Four participants,
NO SAP
one from SAP
OCCASIONAL SAP
FG Dec 4 (6m/2f):
Eight participants,
POWER‐SAP
all from SAP

Focus Group Evaluation: Methodology

All focus groups were transcribed
Coded with respect to 21 frequently mentioned criteria
Frequencies were counted for each criterion
Criterion Criterion
Absolute Relative Absolute Relative
Frequency Frequency Frequency Frequency
Perceived Usefulness Time and Codification Cost 14 6,1%
7 3,1%
Relative Advantage Ease of Use 5 2,2%
24 10,5%
Reputation Compatibility 9 3,9%
5 2,2%
Expected Relationships Privacy Concerns 18 7,9%
8 3,5%
Incentives Critical Mass 4 1,7%
4 1,7%
Fun Self-Efficacy 1 0,4%
1 0,4%
Improving Communication 42 Social Pressure 3 1,3%
18,3%
Supporting Distributed Work 8 Organizational Culture 22 9,6%
3,5%
Speeding Up Communication 12 Top Management Support 6 2,6%
5,2%
Security
Signal-to-Noise Ratio 8 3,5%
26 11,4%
User Control 2 0,9%

© SAP 2009 / Günther-Riehle-Krasnova-Schöndienst / Page 5

Focus Group Evaluation:
Dominant Criteria per Group

Criteria mentioned more than 5 times, sorted by frequency
IT Savviness

SAP / TWITTER KNOW BUT DON’T USE
DON’T KNOW TWITTER USE TWITTER
EXPERIENCE TWITTER
FG5: FG16:
ATTITUDE: NEGATIVE ATTITUDE: VERY POSITIVE
•Privacy FG10:
•Improved Communication •Improved Communication
ATTITUDE: POSITIVE
NO SAP
•Low Relative Advantage •Low Signal‐to‐Noise Ratio
•Time/Codification Efforts •Time/Codification Efforts •Corporate Culture
•Low Signal‐to‐Noise Ratio •Corporate Culture •Finding Contacts

FG4:
OCCASIONAL SAP ATTITUDE: VERY POSITIVE

•Good Replacement
•Improved Communication
•Low Signal‐to‐Noise Ratio
POWER‐SAP
•Corporate Culture

Drivers and Impediments


Relevant Factor Groups

Drivers Impediments

Good Replacement
•
Privacy and Access Control
•
Improved Communication
•
Low Signal-to-Noise Ratio
•
Finding Contacts
•
Time and Codification Efforts
•

Corporate Culture

Innovative vs. Traditional
•
(Non)-Collaborative
•
Open / Secretive/ Political
•


Drivers: Good Replacement

Microblogging’s unique
qualities “I think if people can see they can do their job
better or it leads them to saving time whatever,
Broadcasting / Speed / Length
I think they'll go for it.”
Asynchronous / Not Interrupting
“Twitter replaces a lot of e-mail. As most of my
Informal
emails are only one sentence.”
Easy to scroll through
Enables User Control
Can relieve information overload by
e-mail and IM

However, some participants “Why change? You are used to email, people
expressed doubts concerning communicate with you via email … So you will
the business value have to provide a lot more value.”

“You got your email, you got your cell, you got
your pager, you got your instant messenger,
then you got this. How many can you have?”


Drivers: Improved Communication

More Transparency
“With Twitter you are making a bigger step in terms
Employees
of the ambient awareness that Twitter brings people”

“People would dare to put in a small idea.”

“You don't have to figure out who might have the
knowledge”

Top Management “The CEO has no clue what is really happening”

Faster Communication “That speed of sharing of information in a peer
group is a value to me there”

Supporting Distributed Work “In geographical diverse locations ,Twitter is an
effective tool for quick status broadcasts without
flooding people’s inboxes”


Other Drivers

Finding Contacts
“Twitter is a chance to maybe find people in other
parts of the company that have similar interests”

Improved Visibility / Reputation “If you keep posting good ideas, or keep posting
knowledgeable replies, you show that you are
valuable to the company”

Self-Efficacy “There is often nothing to write. Just routine”

Critical Mass “If no one is using it, there is no value in the tool”


Impediments: Privacy and Access Control

Privacy was only important for the group with low Twitter exposure
“Does Twitter allow actually if you said
Desire for Privacy Control
something … Oh my god, I didn't wanna
say that… to take it away?”
Concern over Longevity
“But if I see every one of these entries
and Availability of the Information
suddenly coming up when somebody
googles my name, it's not what I actually
want to see here.”
“I can see for them making money by
Secondary Use of Information
scanning through profiles and topics and
selling advertising space connected to
these topics.”

For the groups with high Twitter exposure, privacy concerns were
less pronounced but the need for access rights management was
expressed clearly
“I don't want my work tracked, I don't want to report every step I make.”
“I absolutely want to make sure that only a certain subset of people actually knows that
content.”

Impediments: Low Signal-to-Noise Ratio

Low Signal-to-Noise Ratio seen as
one of the biggest concerns
“My concern is always to save time and
Getting Flooded with Information
not to drown in information and you just
get flooded with information from all over”

“Bill posts: I wanna sell my old car. Marg has
Employee Flea Market
a guest from the East Coast who is looking
for a cheap apartment in the Bay Area.”

User Control was seen as a solution “The value here is in the ability of using it
to join a conversation and not join”

“But the nice thing is that I can decide
whether I want to turn it off”

But is it possible just to “turn off”?
“Imagine there is a tweet and you miss it.
You go to a meeting and you could get into
trouble”


Impediments: Time Efficiency Concerns and
Codification Efforts

Time and Effort Required For …
“But I am used to the technology as
… supplying it with information something that saved me time rather than
constantly getting me involved in answering
and putting more information out”

… managing it You have to now service like you said
another tool on a daily basis all the time”

“It's too much maintenance!”
… choosing the right tool
“There are five collaboration tools very quickly”
“Having mail, Twitter and the IM communicator
that you have right now, it's too much”

Can be mitigated by good “It would have to integrate tightly with the
integration with existing software tools I am using to update Twitter … I do
not want to have to go to another
application to do that.”


Corporate Culture

Corporate culture emerged as important determinant in all groups
Participants differTraditional entiate between
“I don't see it in a conservative or banking
Innovative vs. Company
environment. In my experience people are very
opposed that management can track what they
do, like turnover times.”
Collaborative vs. Non-collaborative “Why the hell are you working on her problem? We
vs. Competitive have this problem what are you being here for?”

Open vs. Secretive/Highly Political “You should make sure it is politically correct
before you start really talking about it, you make
sure you are not stepping on someone’s toes...”

People hesitate to stand up vs. “I go to companies where exactly that diversity of
Diversity of opinion is valued opinion around problems within the enterprise is
valuable”
Techie-driven (Formalism) Culture “In my case it's normal to say “Hey, I'm going to
lunch”, but in a conservative banking
environment you would say: “Would anybody
like to join me...”

Design Recommendations


Integration:
Most Frequently Made Suggestion

Into existing communication channels “It should be configured that you actually
use your email as the interface for your
Twitter application”
With existing distribution lists “I absolutely want to make sure that only a
(automatic generation of the groups certain subset of people actually knows
based on distribution lists) that content.”

With other software (.ppt, attachments, “Sometimes, a picture say a thousand words”
pictures )
Into event management systems “If I am a supply chain manager and a part
is cancelled , you usually get like an e-mail
or something to notify you that when you
can kick off your workflow.”
With hand-held devices “But if I can’t use a handheld device,
because there is no a needed keyboard
here, then I’ve created a barrier”


Advanced Filtering:
Crucial to Deal With Information Overload

Rating / Voting / Thumbs-Up / Flags “I only wanna see stuff from Scoble that at least
a hundred other people thought was good”

Keywords “What is needed are function-based
algorithms that identify keywords”

Adding tags to the original content “What is really missing from all these
functionalities is the ability for other people
to add tags to the original content created
or subtract tags”
With hand-held devices

Information Manager / Moderator “I think there must be really a very strong
discipline in the management and a
master who monitors it, so you don't drown
in information”


Security and Privacy:
Access Rights and Group Functionalities

Granular Access “You would need to have more than a personal
account, you would need to have either a company or
a group or a subgroup account, so that if you're
working on a project you can send a message in the
project rather than to the entire company or to
everybody on your list.”
Privacy/Security /Authorization “In the enterprise you should know who is following
what”
“Companies are opening up unbelievable liability
problems. Because what if somebody hears on the
meeting: ‘the project is not gonna make it’ and they just
put on Twitter ‘the project is not gonna make it”’
Dissemination Control “If it's in a company it should be kept within the
company rather than to everybody who is watching”
“So a lot of the corporations sometimes have the
difficulty what can you say openly to everybody which
would not go outside the corporation”


Usability:
Still Leaves Some Things to be Desired

Compared to E-Mail “Twitter is not as intuitive as email was. In terms of
where to go or how to use it”.
Topic organization “It isn't organized well enough for me. it's hard to
follow the thread unless you really read it.”

“But for example for me it is easier on Facebook,
because they have a hierarchy of users. It's like a tree.

Interface “Enduser interface is horrible”

Short message length OK “I really like the limitation in length, because it forces
each of us to think about the currency that we
extend to each other in making what we transfer
very quick, easy, compact, rapidly, digested“

“Key differentiation point”


Lessons for Managers


Value Proposition – Soft Issues

“So this is an amazing group forming happening
Create group feeling
through Twitter and other microblogging functionality.”

Understand group sentiment “The senior management has no good way of finding
out what people are actually doing.”
Find true leaders “That I think is really powerful – to find the true
leaders that people are following, the informal
hierarchy”
Know one’s boss “You get a closer relationship to your boss”

Facilitate communication across “I think Twitter in the enterprise will totally flatten the
the hierarchy hierarchy even more than the email“


Value Proposition – Hard Issues

Data mining “You could just do very interesting data mining on a
system like that, with people updating their status
on a relatively frequent basis”

Harvesting ideas “I see it a tremendous opportunity for harvesting
and preserving the work of creative groups in R&D.
To be much more in step with the inventive groups
instead of having in a week period updates.”
Reaching out to clients “I see its potential to reach clients and companies”

“These people are actually following customers and
try to understand what the opportunities are”

Doubts about the actual value “I can't really see the business context, except
informing people in a very short form about
something, what's hype”

ROI depends on corporate “Some business functions are always based on ...
communication. Some groups like in engineering
function (Engineering vs.
there maybe 20 % communication and the rest is like
sales/marketing vs. …)
thinking, doing, working individually “

Important: Creating Incentives for Adoption

Give people reason to adopt it “You have to give people a reason to use it. You
can’t just say: ‘Here’s a community, here’s a tool,
go use it!’”

“We adjust schedules in a way that we expect
Splitting work-time
you to just do 80% of your time on the work but
you at least spend ten times to communicate and
just brainwash new ideas on Twitter.”
Buying-In “I think in an American enterprise the usual
approach is getting people buy in. And I think
they have meetings and ask people what
benefit do they want to see“
Train people to use the tool “First find internal champions and we get them
together and they actually brainstorm us to
what’s going on with sort of short message
communication in the company right now.”
Find internal champions “If the management would do it, then the rest of the
workers would do it.“

Top Management Support “If your boss is passing down information that you
need on Twitter, then you gonna be on Twitter”


Mandatory vs. Voluntary Adoption:
Mixed Opinions
Against mandatory adoption “If I am forced to use a tool that I do not see value that
is a downside.”
“I think especially in the US you expect to be
consulted, you expect to have your own opinion voice.”
“If you mandate it you kill it”.

For mandatory adoption “If it is not something that an employee is not
measured upon; you will ignore it.“
“Why should I do it if I am not being paid to do this?”
Externality of mandatory adoption “If the system Is not perceived as useful, you
have no incentive for high quality information,
so I pollute the information with random data.”

Anonymous use not advisable “[Anonymous postings] created the transparency
which was actually unhealthy within the organisation “

“I would never make a performance review
If system is used for employee
based on how many tweets they put on.”
evaluation, it may be sabotaged
“But you can send a tweet in the morning too,
pretending you're working.”

Towards an Empirical Model


Multitude of Existing Models

Atti. PU
Attitude

BI Behavior
SN BI B Att. BI B

SN
EOU
PBC

Figure 1: Theory of Reasoned Action
Figure 2 : The Theory of Planned Behavior Figure 3: Technology Acceptance Model

Expe- Volun-
rience tariness
PU

EOU
SN

Attitude

Comp
Image

PU BI Behavior

Job ***
SN BI B
Relev.

SE
Output Ease of
PBC
Quality Use

FC
Demo

Figure 5: Decomposed Theory of Planned Behavior
Figure 4 : Technology Acceptance Model 2


Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of
Technology (UTAUT): Best Explanatory Value

Performance
UTAUT shows excellent
Expectancy

performance in explaining
Behavioral
Behavior
Intention

adoption of traditional IT (e.g.
word processing software)
Effort
Expectancy

UTAUT is not entirely
Social
Influence
suitable to explain adoption of
collaboration tools like
microblogging
Facilitating
Conditions

Extensions are needed...
Experienc Voluntari
Gender Age
e ness

Figure 6: Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology

(Venkatesh et al., 2003)


Empirical Validation of the Model:
Extensions to UTAUT


Extensions to UTAUT


The Extended Version


Summary: Critical Issues

Privacy concerns negatively correlated with IT savviness of participants
Concerns need to be addressed to convince less IT-savvy users
Access and dissemination control needs to improve significantly
Current user interfaces considered mediocre to dismal
User interfaces and functionality (threading) need to improve
Variety and quality of client software needs to improve
Worries about signal-noise ratio and personal utility (what does it do for
me?) persist
Smart filtering tools required
User control important: mandatory use not acceptable


Summary: Key Insights

Broad consensus that enterprise microblogging holds considerable
potential to improve communication and collaboration
Enterprise microblogging supports new communication and
collaboration scenarios not addressed by current tools
Enterprise microblogging is applicable to all industries and all
corporate functions ...
... but customer ROI will vary, especially depending on corporate
culture and corporate function (accounting vs. marketing etc.)
The critical issues identified above need to be addressed and solved
in order to be successful in the marketplace


Micro-Blogging in the Enterprise Focus Groups Evaluation

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